At the invitation of Ave Maria law students Matt Bowman and Christopher Young, Joe and Ann Scheidler and their daughter Annie Scheidler, director of the League’s youth outreach, presented a sidewalk counseling seminar in Ann Arbor, MI. The October 18 seminar was co-sponsored by the pro-life clubs of both Ave Maria and St. Mary’s College.
Ann Arbor hosts during a visit to the League’s St. Joseph Chapel. From left: Chris Young holding John Paul Dejak, Joe Scheidler holding Thomas Augustine Dejak, Annie Dejak, John Dejak.
John and Annie Dejak and their two sons hosted the Scheidlers and Chris Young at a dinner in their Ann Arbor home prior to the workshop. John Dejak and Annie Scheidler had served as officers of Pro-Life Loyola University Students (PLUS) while they were both students at Loyola in Chicago.
At the seminar Scheidler discussed the chapter of his book CLOSED: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion, on “Sidewalk Counseling.” He introduced Ann and Annie, who outlined the philosophy of sidewalk counseling and effective methods of approaching abortion-bound women to offer them alternatives.
They showed the opening segment of the League’s sidewalk counseling video, “No Greater Joy,” to set the tone for their talk.
The audience included some students who had never been at an abortion mill, and several who regularly pray and counsel at clinics in Ann Arbor and elsewhere. The Ave Maria pro-life group has a well-organized schedule of counseling and prayer at the local abortion mill. Matt Bowman invited the audience to join the prayer groups and the Scheidlers arranged to go to the clinic after a workshop the next day.
Fifteen students from St. Mary’s and Ave Maria joined the Scheidlers at the Health Clinic for Women along with Lynn Mills, long-time pro-life activist from Livonia, MI and Monica Migliorino Miller, who recently relocated to Michigan from Joliet, IL. Monica now teaches theology at St. Mary’s College.
